"It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution." The ten U.S. Army soldiers and one Iraqi soldier speaking from Tikrit were "coached" before Bush spoke to them. The Iraqi, Sergeant Major Akeel, only said, "Thank you very much for everything. I like you." Reporter Jeremy Scahill observed, "Under Saddam, Iraqis were bombarded via their TVs with video of the Iraqi leader meeting his generals in Tikrit. ... For Iraqis, Tikrit represented the mother of all locations for the regime's propaganda." Scahill contrasts the soldiers' glowing reports with "most independent assessments, to which the White House would never dare listen." After spending a week with "a crack unit of the Iraqi army," a Knight Ridder reporter wrote, "Instead of rising above the ethnic tension that's tearing their nation apart, the mostly Shiite troops are preparing for, if not already fighting, a civil war against the minority Sunni population."

On October 20, the U.S. Senate's Commerce Committee will consider the Truth in Broadcasting Act, "as part of a mark-up session with three other bills." (The meeting will be webcast, at www.commerce.senate.gov.) The Act would require government-funded video news releases (VNRs) or audio news releases to carry a clear disclaimer, such as a "conspicuous" tag reading, "Produced by the U.S. Government" visible "for the entire duration" of the VNR. PR Week assesses the industry's reaction to VNR "flaps" and the Armstrong Williams "imbroglio" and finds it to be "spotty" and "inconclusive." They write, "In April, Ketchum unveiled its first-ever guidelines for disclosure. ... Just last month, Edelman unveiled its first-ever code of conduct for employees. ... Other agencies," including Burson-Marsteller and Porter Novelli, "have not officially codified policies regarding disclosure." See our "No Fake News!" page for actions you can take to demand accountability for propagandists and disclosure of all materials provided to newsrooms by third parties.